


The Most Important Thing

by agorophobia



Category: Gundam SEED, Gundam SEED Destiny
Genre: AU, Almost everyone dies, Angst, Athrun is not and will never be okay, F/M, M/M, PTSD, Polyamory, all relationships are in the background, buckle up kiddos this is a sad one, no beta we die like broken Extended, the Extended do not get nearly enough love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-26
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:54:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28314153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agorophobia/pseuds/agorophobia
Summary: It's not a dream, I've just found the most important place. Paradise disappears when you close your eyes for the last time.
Relationships: Orga Sabnak/Shani Andras, Shinn Asuka/Athrun Zala, Shinn Asuka/Stella Loussier
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	The Most Important Thing

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place in an AU where the original ending of Seed is mostly adhered to - that is, almost all of the main cast is dead save for Athrun, who lost an arm at the battle of Jachin Due. The difference is all six of the Extended survived the war, and Shinn and Athrun have been living together and taking care of them. Five years after the end of Destiny, their short lives are now coming to an end due to health complications.
> 
> I recommend listening to this as you read: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9NmrrOFiAk

Shani was the first.

It didn't come as a surprise. He had been in bad shape for years, using a wheelchair and increasingly plagued by tremors and spasms. The inevitable day where he could no longer lift his hands to care for his potted roses or press the piano keys was the day he was checked into the hospital, and four days later he was gone. He passed away with a small smile, weakly clutching Orga's hand, mismatched eyes on his prized green romantica that Stellar had insisted be brought to his room.

The air was still after the monitor flatlined. Those present who cried did so silently, Auel and Stellar huddling against Sting and Shinn respectively, while Orga didn't move from his position by the bed. The only disturbance was Athrun making brief eye contact with Shinn and squeezing his free hand. Ever since receiving the devastating news that there was no cure for the Extended they had known this day would come eventually, but neither had wanted to admit it.

One by one they all began to file out of the room, until only Orga and Clotho were left. No words were spoken between them, but the look they exchanged said enough. This was the beginning of the end.

Clotho was the second.

He was well aware of what was coming as soon as he began making mistakes during his games, hitting keys he didn't mean to hit when his hands trembled. He adamantly refused to be taken in for any kind of treatment; the way Shani had died surrounded by machinery had sickened him. Even as he retained his upbeat snarky personality, it pained everyone in the house to watch him deteriorate. Stellar avoided him, Shinn would get choked up trying to speak to him, even Auel didn't have it in him to tease him the way he used to. He held on for two months after the first symptoms appeared, but succumbed on a humid Wednesday evening, gazing at Shani's former rose garden from the window, grateful that the others hadn't let it fall into disrepair.

Sting was the third.

His was sudden, unexpected one early winter night when Shinn was awoken by Stellar screaming and shaking him, hysterical and inconsolable, too incoherent to tell him what was going on. By the time he and Athrun were able to get themselves together enough to run out to the room the three younger Extended shared, it was too late. Sting lay motionless in their shared bed as Auel stared at him with numb horror.

Doctors would later confirm his death was due to a massive toxicity induced seizure, and privately warned Shinn that this would likely happen to the other two young ones as well. His mouth set in a hard bitter line as he gripped the paper for the prescription they had written out in an attempt to stave off the inevitable. Those kids – could they still be called kids this many years later, and after everything they had seen? - weren't stupid. 'Sparing' them the knowledge was meaningless. They knew death loomed on the horizon in front of them.

Orga was the fourth.

It was a rainy afternoon in April when he could no longer mask his symptoms, when he collapsed heavily against Athrun who fumbled to support him without his prosthetic. It was all he could do to wipe the blood from the corner of his own mouth and ask that none of the others see him like this. Those were the last words he spoke until a week later, when confined to his room he looked up and whispered Shani's name with a smile before the light finally faded from his eyes. Athrun would always wonder if he truly did see him in that moment, or if he died merely hoping that he would. Remembering how close the two of them had been he wanted it to be the former. After Jachin Due, when he'd seen just how badly all three of them had been falling apart, he wanted nothing more for them than to be able to live out the rest of their lives peacefully. Had he and Shinn helped them accomplish that, he wondered?

Auel was the fifth.

His passing certainly wasn't unexpected, but it was horrifying to come upon him that blistering summer morning crumpled stiffly on the kitchen floor with a shattered glass next to his hand and a last pained expression on his face, having seized and died sometime in the middle of the night. For him, it seemed, the benzodiazepine pills hadn't taken and that night his body had simply given out.

Stellar had run over the broken glass to get to him, oblivious to the splinters that ended up in her feet and knees as she dropped down and shook him, screaming, begging him to wake up and not leave her alone. Knowing he didn't have any chance at pulling her away all Shinn could do was hug her from behind while Athrun covered his face to hide his own tears. The household had been growing quieter and quieter with each passing, but Auel had by far been the liveliest member. Without him the atmosphere became oppressive, quiet enough to hurt everyone's ears at times.

Stellar was the sixth.

It was an early, misty morning in September, that time of year when the windchill was just starting to pick up and people didn't want to go to the beach anymore. For the past two months all of them had hardly spoken a word to each other, but it was when Shinn noticed that Stellar hadn't watered the roses one day that he knew it was truly over. Even as she had watched the others die off one by one, even as she had retreated further and further into herself to protect her psyche, she had never missed a day of caring for those flowers since Shani's passing.

It wasn't a long drive out to the shore. No words were exchanged but her smile didn't fade even when they stopped and Shinn had to carry her out of the car. If anything her expression only grew brighter when she heard the crashing waves. For a long time they sat together at the water's edge, letting the waves wash over their feet without speaking until the sun had risen directly overhead.

“Shinn?”

“Ah – yeah?”

“Stellar's...dying.”

Either everyone's passings had finally broken her fear of that word or she was simply too exhausted for her conditioning to kick in by that point. Whichever it was, Shinn couldn't answer her around the lump in his throat, only hold her tighter as she shut her eyes. It wasn't until the sun began to dip below the horizon that either one spoke again.

“How, how are you holding up?”

He knew the answer before she could say it, just by watching how long it took her to open her eyes halfway. She didn't focus on him, rather just above him, and when he followed her gaze he found a flock of seagulls passing over the two of them, headed towards the ocean horizon.

Stellar reached a trembling hand up towards them and the setting sun, her expression full of wonder. “Will Stellar...fly away to them too?”

Shinn grasped her other hand and nodded, tears already streaming down his face. “Yeah. You will. You'll see all of them. I'm sure.”

“Ah...I'm glad.”

Cosmic Era 81, the last night of the year, found Shinn and Athrun sitting on the couch together, holding hands in silence, a stark contrast to the lively celebrations they'd had prior. No lights, no yelling, no one running through the halls or stealing and hiding each others' snacks. Their deaths had lingered in the air, bearing down heavily on the two who remained and choking any words they might have said to each other.

Which made it all the more startling when Shinn finally broke that silence.

“I knew it would happen! I knew it, but - ”

“You wish they had lived longer?” Athrun's smile didn't match his eyes, eyes which had already lost their shine after both wars yet somehow seemed even more dull now.

“Of course I do! What kind of question is that? I wish there had been a way to fix them! We should have been working on one ourselves, we should have done more for them!”

Athrun shook his head, cutting him off. “We couldn't have.”

“What do you mean we couldn't have?!”

“After the first war. I looked everywhere for a cure for the original three, but there was nothing we could do. Trying to develop one was pointless, as there was no way to keep them alive long enough to see it made.” His voice caught. “We did everything we could.”

“Everything we could? You gave up!” Shinn rubbed furiously at his watering eyes as he yelled. “We just let them die, you and me both!”

“Shinn.” Athrun caught his hand, trying to steady the both of them. “You know that's not true. We fought to keep them with us, and we let them live out their lives normally instead of in another laboratory. You're angry, and I understand, but you're not to blame for their deaths. We knew this was coming and so did they.”

Shinn's voice died in his throat when he locked eyes with Athrun and saw that he wasn't the only one crying. Slowly his teeth unclenched and he crumpled forward to be caught in a one-armed hug, whispering a tearful plea. “Did we...make them happy, in the end?”

Athrun nodded, rubbing his back. “I think so.”

“...That's the most important thing.”

**Author's Note:**

> Happy birthday to Auel Neider and Merry Christmas to the rest of ya filthy animals.


End file.
